Ice hockey coach jailed for affair with schoolgirl

An ice hockey coach has been jailed for four-and-a-half years for having an affair with a schoolgirl at his club.

By John Bingham

11:55AM BST 01 Sep 2008

A jury heard how Nicholas Lovell, 38, would take the teenager, a member of his junior team, to hotels for sex.

Lovell, who coached at the Bracknell Bees Ice Hockey Club in Berkshire, was only caught after the girl's father became suspicious and found an email she had sent to Lovell, suggesting she might have been pregnant, Reading Crown Court heard.

The coach, from Guildford, Surrey, was found guilty of five charges of sexually activity with a child by a jury after a trial last month.

Prosecutor Oliver Dunkin, told the court that the affair began during trips to see senior matches.

Over the course of a number of months, Lovell slept with the teenager in the back of his van and at a boarding house, as well as a string of hotels at hotels from Bournemouth to Bristol, the court heard.

Her family eventually became suspicious after she sent a series of last-minute text messages to her mother to say she would be going to a friend's house or had netball practice.

Police stepped in after the girl admitted kissing Lovell, warning the pair not to continue the relationship, the prosecutor said.

Eventually the girl's worried father turned detective to find out whether the relationship had really stopped, installing "spy" software on his daughter's computer.

Within days he had found a batch of emails including an exchange where the girl expressed concern that she was pregnant and handed the messages to police.

Sentencing Lovell, Judge Gordon Risius said there had been a breach of trust.

"You knew perfectly well how old she was and you took advantage of her emotional immaturity," he said.

Lovell was also ordered to sign on to the Sex Offenders' Register indefinitely and was disqualified from working with children.